China will be importing more pork because African Swine Fever continues to spread and reduce domestic production, Rabobank said.
China is already seeing local supply shortages due to the ban on live hog transportation from affected regions, even though the official number of animals culled to date is small relative to the country’s total production, the bank said.
Price pressure in the affected regions is forcing some small farmers out of the market.
“The possibility of a radical change in hog supply over the coming months could impact the international market,” Rabobank analysts said.
Earlier in the week, ASF was discoveredin a previously unaffected area of China, the southwest province of Yunnan. To date, ASF has affected 27 cities in China, mostly in northern and eastern provinces, resulting in the culling of 200,000 hogs of the 700 million slaughtered annually in the country, according to Reuters.
